


Objects in the  Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear

by NervousAsexual



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Deep Space 9 Gender Non-Conforming Club, GNC 3: The GNC Club Rides Again, Mirror Universe, Station Family Feels, the timeline in the mirror universe has been waffled about somewhat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-05 20:17:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 3,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13395453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAsexual/pseuds/NervousAsexual
Summary: Mirror Quark arrives unexpectedly on Deep Space 9.





	1. Quark Has Learned Nothing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snoozlebee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snoozlebee/gifts).



> based on an EXTREMELY cursed post by the DS9 shame blog: ["i appreciate that mirror quark was a version of quark that wasn’t driven to honor a culture that did him no favors, but also sometimes wish they’d made some terrible “ernest goes to jail” style farce involving quark and an even shittier quark"](https://ds9shameblog.tumblr.com/post/169757370699/i-appreciate-that-mirror-quark-was-a-version-of)

"What's that for?" Odo asked as Jadzia handed him the mug of tea.

Jadzia didn't say a word, just gestured for him to follow her. They walked to the Promenade railing.

Well below them Quark could be seen, shoving a large heavy-looking box along in front of him and arguing over his shoulder at a pair of Wadi who were following close behind.

Odo turned to Jadzia and found she was offering him, not a mug this time, but an earpiece. He took it and held it up to his ear. Now he could hear Quark's complaining clear as day.

"Hey, it's legal," Jadzia said as he glared at her. "What? You really think Garak would lie to me?"

"The terms of the agreement were already decided," one of the Wadi was saying.

"But not set down in writing," Quark replied. "If those were really the terms you wanted, we should have signed a contract."

The Wadi sighed and turned to her partner.

"We will take this disagreement to the Ferengi ambassador," she said. "The rules were set quite clearly. You can't just change them on a whim."

"Rule of Acquisition 202," Quark puffed, throwing his body against the box and moving it a few centimeters. "The justification for profit is profit."

 "He's going to destroy Federation-Wadi relations," Odo said. "Some days I'm sure the best thing I could do for this station is push him out an airlock."

"He's cute," said Jadzia. "I think we should keep him."


	2. Quark Screws Up

Perhaps he shouldn't have cheated the Wadi, Quark thought, wiping the sweat from his brow and accidentally poking himself in the eye with his hyperspanner. Or maybe he should have at least waited to cheat them until he was sure the Parenthaia machine was fully assembled.

Definitely the latter.

It was some unholy hour of the morning and he'd been at it all night, crawling around on the bar floor trying to find a resonator coil that had bounced out of the box when he opened it, failing to install the latinum dispenser, and learning the hard way that the translated owner's manual the Wadi had promised him was not in standard, not even in Vulcan, but in some regional dialect of what the computer claimed was... Kelpian? A language Quark had never even heard of, let alone understood.

"Why does everything have to be an ordeal?" he asked the Parenthaia machine, but the power core wasn't installed and the machine didn't answer. All he'd wanted was a new gambling rig. Something to catch the eye of anyone not already drawn in by the dabo girls and the alcohol. Something with flashing lights and music. Maybe O'Brien was right. Maybe he should have bought an old human Pachinko machine instead.

O'Brien, he thought bitterly, pushing the power core into its designated slot. If O'Brien knew so much maybe he should be the one putting this thing together. But no, he would probably expect some kind of compensation.

Fine then. He'd just find Rom and make him do the work. He shouldn't be too hard to find. He was probably in bed sleeping, like Quark should have been.

"Stupid thing," he said to the machine and gave it a thwack with the hyperspanner. As if hearing and understanding the machine fired into life, seeking latinum in its latinum dispenser. Finding none, it reached instead for the next best thing. There was a loud crack as if of thunder overhead, and a flash of light, and when all was again still Quark was no where to be seen.

* * *

He was looking at himself in the world's biggest, darkest mirror.

"Who the heck are you?" Quark asked Quark.

"Who the heck are you?" Quark asked Quark.

And they vanished into each other.


	3. Quark Goes to Jail

Instead of a prison cell Quark woke up on the floor of his bar, and instead of Gul Garak standing over him he saw Odo, and immediately started screaming.

"Stop that," Odo said, looking annoyed. "You've already woken half the station with your..." He flapped a hand at what looked like a small, half-melted warp drive. "...with your mechanical misadventures. I said stop yelling!"

But he couldn't.

"You're dead," he tried to tell him, but all that came out was screaming. "The terrans killed you," he tried to say, but only paused for a breath. "This makes no sense," he tried to verbalize, but the screaming resumed.

"Quark! If you don't stop screaming I am going to arrest you for disturbing the peace!"

What were they going to do, execute him twice? he thought, but again could not stop screaming long enough to put this into words. Maybe he was dead, he thought, the screams becoming only the background noise of his life. He'd never held much stock in an afterlife, but here he was with the Changeling, and that could not be argued.

"Fine," Odo said, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and dragging him out to the Promenade. "We're going to jail. You are under arrest."

"Constable!" A cheerful voice interrupted. "Am I too late for a nightcap?"

Quark stopped screaming. The voice sent shivers of fear up and down his spine.

"Very much so. I would advise you to go back to your own business."

"But my business requires me to speak with Quark." The owner of the voice leaned in over him.

"I don't think..." Odo began to say.

"Good morning, Quark," Garak said, giving him a smile. "If you recall we had agreed to meet regarding..."

And Quark began to scream again.

"Get out of here before I arrest you too." Odo shoved Garak out of the way and continued toward the security office.

"It's okay," Garak called after them. "I get that a lot."

The station was different, empty. He couldn't smell the stink of the ore processing and there were no terrans moving about anywhere. Quark grabbed hold of Odo's arm and bit his tongue and hung on for dear life. Odo may have returned from the dead, but even that wasn't as dangerous as Garak and his... business.

"Are you finished screaming?" Odo asked him.

He thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Good."

"What's going on over there?" demanded another voice, and to his horror he saw some one emerge from a food kiosk. The Warlord Alenis was on the station? He hadn't known...

"Is that the damn fool bartender?" she demanded, her blind eyes haunting his very soul. "He's keeping me awake!"

"Go back to sleep, Alenis," Odo said, which was brave of him and also incredibly foolish. "I'm taking care of it."

"I can take care of it too," she yelled as they passed her. "Let me shove him out the airlock."

Quark felt himself getting woozy. I'm not going to faint, he told himself. I am in control. If not in control of my situation, then at least of my reactions.

It still felt better to be safely locked in the jail.


	4. Quark Chooses Not to Obey

Apparently that Parenthaia explosion was stronger than he thought it was, because the whole station looked like it had been blown up. Dust and grime everywhere, and all the Federation humans padding about in their jammies looked extremely depressed.

"Did you tell Rom to clean up the mess before we left?" he asked, but Garak just hustled him faster across the Promenade. "Slow down, it isn't that important."

"Do shut up," Garak said.

Rude, Quark thought, but they passed into Servo's Robotics and there was no time to say more.

What the heck did they do to Servo's? What had once been robot parts was now piles upon piles of junk, garbage really. And reclining on a stack of it was Kira, a weird crown thing on her head and what looked like a human golf club in her hands.

"What is it, Garak?" she asked. She sounded, Quark thought with satisfaction, no more impressed with the tailor than he felt. Kira looked up and when her eyes fell on Quark her lip curled in disgust.

"I told you to make it quick and painless, you fool," she said to Garak. "Do you understand what quick means?"

Garak twitched. "He was out of his cell."

"People don't break out of your jail."

Jail? Garak had a jail? Boy, would Odo be interested in hearing this.

"No. That's why I found it so... interesting. He was in the bar."

Kira sighed and aggressively draped herself across the garbage. "Well, Quark, tell us the story. Who was it broke you out? No, no, don't tell me. Those eternally grateful Terrans came to your rescue, didn't they?"

Quark scoffed. "What are you talking about? No Terran's ever done anything for me. I was trying to put together my Parenthaia machine and it got a little broken is all. Ask Odo, he was probably pretending to be the hyperspanner or something."

Like a coiled snake Kira was upon him, swinging the golf club. He barely had time to duck. The club struck the head of a mannequin and became lodged in it, snapping jaggedly in half.

"Are you mocking me?" she roared.

"I... I am not, no." He couldn't stop staring at the golf club sticking out of the mannequin. "Can I talk to Captain Sisko instead?"

"You actual piece of filth," Garak said, picking him up easily by the neck, but Kira held out a hand to stop him.

"What did you say?" she asked. "Repeat yourself, Ferengi."

Again, rude. "It just seems like you're busy at the moment. I can talk to Captain Sisko if you'd rather not talk to me."

Kira looked up at Garak.

" _Their_ Sisko was a captain," she said quietly.

Garak said nothing.

Kira put aside what was left of the golf club. "How did you get here?"

What was that supposed to mean? She'd seen him arrive. "He dragged me here."

"No. No, no. Quark... you see these things?"

She gestured around at the garbage. How could he miss it? He nodded.

"These things came here and we can't ask them how they arrived. We don't know how they got to our timeline from Kirk's. But you, you're ostensibly sentient. So I'm going to ask again. How did you get here?"

She was drunk on homebrew kanar, he decided. "We'll talk in the morning, when you're sober."

But Garak's grip on his neck tightened and he wanted to ask what exactly he thought he was doing and would have done so if he could have breathed, actually, and just as he was starting to get worried the cap to a Jeffries tube popped out of the ceiling and struck Garak on the head. It knocked him to the ground. Quark looked up in wonder--maybe that explosion had done some serious damage--and was surprised to see a familiar face sticking out of the tube.

"Come with me," Rom said, holding out his hand, "if you want to live."


	5. Quark Discovers the Truth

There were no charges to hold him on, so in the morning Odo booted Quark out of the security office and told him to get back to his quarters.

"My... what?" Quark just stood there in front of the door, looking small and frightened.

"Your quarters, Quark. Your domicile. The place were you lay your crooked little head and cook up your schemes at night."

Quark said nothing and did not move.

Odo sighed. It had been a long night. He was ready to regenerate. "Quark... very well. You stand there and I'll call Rom to come and get you."

"Rom?" Quark looked surprised and Odo gave him a suspicious squint before sending out the page for Rom.

Jadzia responded to the page before Rom did. "What's up?" she asked, draping herself across Odo's desk.

"Don't you have science or something to be doing?"

"Of course not. I heard your coded message and came as fast as I can."

"What?"

Quark scooted closer to Jadzia, gazing around nervously.

"Your coded message telling the members of the GNC club to assemble."

"For the last time, Jadzia, there is no GNC club."

"Good morning, clubmates," Garak said, posing dramatically in the doorway. "I heard the coded message."

"Get out of my office!" Odo shouted as Quark's mouth opened in a silent scream.

Rom squeezed into the office under Garak's arm. "I got a page?"

Quark saw him, did a double take, then threw himself upon him. A look of panic crossed Rom's face.

"There's something wrong with my brother," he said.

When has there ever been something right with your brother, Odo thought, but he kept it to himself. "Escort him back to his quarters. I'm sure he'll be fine."

Rom and Quark both looked at him now, each frightened in their own way. He groaned and ran a hand over his face. Nothing was running yet.

"Fine," he said. "Let me escort him. Surely there's nothing more pressing I could be attending to."

He ushered them out of the office and saw that Garak and Jadzia were following as well.

"Don't you people have jobs?" he asked.

They both shrugged.

The five of them took a turbolift straight to Quark's quarters.

"Here you are," Odo said. "Home." He tried to leave but Quark didn't move to open the door and when Rom tried to open the door the security system tased him.

"Prophet's pagh," he growled, but he stepped over Rom flopping around on the ground and opened the door himself. Quark flinched away, but when nothing happened he took a few cautious steps forward. He looked around at the loud clashing colors that decorated the place.

"I've been vandalized," he said softly. "By Elvis?"

"What's Elvis?" Garak whispered.

"Historical human pop star," Jadzia whispered back. "Probably a reference to something nobody actually liked. I wouldn't worry about it."

"Brother." Rom staggered into the room, still looking a bit shocked. "Brother, you decorated the place. Don't you recognize it."

Quark only looked at him in concern.

Why must everything be an ordeal? Odo thought bitterly, and as he was considering going and regenerating in Quark's shower to spite him Major Kira arrived.

"What's going on in here?" she demanded, pushing her way in. "Move. Why aren't any of you people working?"

"Something's wrong with my brother," Rom said again, and sat down on the floor.

Kira gave Quark a once-over.

"His clothes," she said.

"What about his clothes." Odo really had no time for this nonsense.

"He's not wearing Quark clothes. Quark wears bright colors and this Quark's in dark colors. How could you not notice his clothes? What are you people, straight?"

For a moment no one spoke.

"There's no need to be hurtful, Nerys," Odo said at last.

"It's pretty obvious who this is." Kira gestured at Quark, who promptly collapsed beside his brother. "He's from the mirror universe. Didn't we debrief on this the last time it happened?"

Every one hung their heads in shame to have forgotten something so important.

"You didn't debrief on this," Odo said to Garak. Garak suddenly found a multi-colored wall hanging incredibly interesting.


	6. Quark Escapes

"Did you at least clean up the mess in the bar?" Quark asked.

Rom shoved him roughly through the Jeffries tube. "What do you think I'm doing now?"

In truth, Quark didn't know. "Maybe you're going to shoot me to death and leave me up here."

"And why would I do that."

"Rule of Acquisition 139," Quark said. "Wives serve and brothers inherit."

"What are you even talking about? Take this left."

Quark turned sharply to the left. "The Rules of Acquisition? I know you don't have the lobes for business but even you ought to know them."

"I'm just trying to keep you from getting killed."

"What is even going on with you?" Quark stopped to stare back at him.

"What is going on with you?" Rom snapped, and gave him a push. "Keep moving."

"You're acting like a complete stranger. What is this guerrilla warfare creeping in the vents?"

"I'm trying to keep you from getting killed," Rom growled, "you dense dense man."

In response Quark curled into a ball and rolled into a corner.

"Quark. Quark! We need to keep moving."

Quark did not move.

"Quark?"

"I don't understand anything," Quark mumbled into his knees.

Rom sighed.

"It's okay to be scared," he said. "But you still have to keep moving."

Quark glanced back at him and just as quickly put his face back into his knees.

"Come on, Quark. You can tell me about your rules while we're going."


	7. Quark Is the Subject of Conversation

Captain Sisko looked at Rom and Jadzia on his couch, hugging Quark from either side. He looked back to Odo and Kira in front of his desk.

"You're sure?" he asked.

"Positive." Kira shrugged. "I met Mirror Quark. Talked to him, even. That's him alright."

Sisko groaned and rubbed his eyes. "It's too early in the morning for a crossover. Okay." He dropped his hands onto the desk. "So what caused the flip this time?"

"Brother says he doesn't know," Rom said. "He was going to be executed and then suddenly he was here."

"Oh dear," said Sisko.

"I have a theory on that," Odo said. "What drew my attention initially was some kind of explosion from Quark's... our Quark's... new gambling machine. I think he may have triggered the flip with the machine."

Kira turned to him. "If we can re-create the explosion, we may be able to send him back to his own timeline."

"But we don't know how he triggered the explosion."

"There may be security tapes."

Odo shook his head. "Doubtful. The cameras in Quark's bar don't actually record anything."

"We could ask Chief O'Brien to have a look. If he had access to all the records we have on previous crossovers..."

"...he might just be able to re-create it," Odo finished. He and Kira smiled and gave each other a nod.

"Aren't we forgetting something?" Jadzia asked from behind them.

Everyone turned to her.

"What makes you so sure he even wants to go back?" she asked. Quark ducked his head. "He said himself he's facing execution in his timeline."

"That may be," Sisko said. "But our Quark is in that timeline, and we can't leave him there."

Nobody said anything.

Sisko groaned again. "As commanding officer I am issuing an order that we are going to bring our Quark back. We've seen time and again that interactions between the two timelines never turn out well. Unfortunately that means this Quark will have to return, but it's got to be done."

Rom hugged Quark as tight as he could and Quark hugged him back. Sisko came over to them and put his hand on Rom's shoulder.

"I'm very sorry," he said. "I wish there were another way."

"It's for the best, Captain," Garak said from where he stood in the hall, peering in the window. Odo glared at him and he scampered away.

"He is less obnoxious than our universe's counterpart," Kira said regretfully. "But Sisko's right. Nothing good ever happens when some one from our universe is stuck in their's."

"But!" Rom said.

Quark patted his arm.

"It's alright," he said. "I'll be fine."

But nobody actually believed him.


	8. Quark Philosophizes on The Rules of Acquisition

"...and that's Rule 285," Quark said.

They were having a pause in the tubes. Rom rubbed his ears and shook his head.

"And that's all of them?" he asked.

"Well, I have one more that I don't think anyone else uses. It's all over when Morn..." He fell silent. "Do... do you have a Morn in this universe?"

"I... No comment."

Quark pouted.

"What's the point of all these rules again? It doesn't sound like they've ever done a thing for you."

"That's not true! I'll have you know I've earn profit, a lot of it. I was once Grand Nagus!"

Rom shrugged. "My Quark once saved hundreds of Terrans by orchestrating a refinery accident."

"I've saved people," Quark said, but his heart wasn't in it. "Sometimes. And I paid to send my nephew to school, so... so..."

"My Quark was... is my best friend."

Now they both sat sadly and felt sorry for themselves.

"Rom likes me," Quark said. "Of course he does."

"But does he know you like him?"

"Of course." But Quark didn't look so convinced.

In the silence that followed they noticed the smell of something burning.

"That'll be the Intendant trying to smoke us out." Rom got up and held out a hand to help Quark as well, but Quark had taken a latinum-plated tooth sharpener and was staring at it. "Quark?"

"Yeah," Quark said. "She's not very nice.


	9. Quark Beats Up an Innocent Machine

Quark's was still cordoned off, but Rom and Quark took the back way in and the constable didn't chase them back out again.

"You think you can re-create the explosion?" he asked O'Brien, who examined the Parenthaia machine from all angles.

"My time has come," O'Brien said. He took a hyperspanner from his pocket and gave the machine a whack.

"It's a real nice place," Quark said.

Rom sat him down at the bar and dug up some sand fleas and a bottle of aged Finagle's Folly. "Quark... my Quark... was saving this for a special occasion. I guess this is pretty special."

 "Yup," said Quark, but didn't take a drink.

"So..." Rom took a seat on the other side of the bar. He poured himself a glass of Finagle's Folly and swished it around the glass. "This execution?"

"I was helping Terrans escape. I'd been doing a lot of that but hadn't really gotten caught until your Intendant showed up."

Rom made as if to take a sip but didn't.

"She needed help, so I thought I could give it to her. Maybe not the best idea I ever had. But our Intendant, she said my execution was supposed to be quick, so that's good."

"I don't want you to go back," Rom blurted, and blushed and downed a gulp of Folly.

"I don't really want to go back either," Quark admitted. He pushed his own glass away untouched. "It's nice to be here with you without all the terrible things happening on the station. But I can do more good in my universe. As long as I don't get..."

"You're so much nicer than my Quark." Rom was babbling into his drink now. "I love my brother, but he... he can be mean."

"You should tell him that."

Rom shook his head. "That's a bad idea."

"Hey." O'Brien came up and tapped Quark's shoulder. "Here." He handed him a hyperspanner. "Go hit the power modulator, I want to see if that will work."

"Why is it a bad idea?" Quark pressed, following O'Brien over to the machine. "If he's upsetting you he should know. Brothers should take care of one another."

"That's not a Rule of Acquisition," Rom said sadly.

Quark tapped the hyperspanner against the power modulator. Nothing happened.

"Hmm." O'Brien looked the machine over again. "Try here."

"Tell him I'm making it one," Quark said. He hit the machine again. "And I'm a guest from another dimension so he can't refuse me."

"I'm gonna miss you," Rom said, and started to cry just as the machine exploded again.


	10. Quark Meets Quark

He was standing in front of the big mirror again.

"Hello," said Quark.

"Hey," said Quark.

And they disappeared into one another.


	11. Quark Comes Home

When he got up from the floor Rom saw there was still a Quark standing there and he wondered if maybe it hadn't worked, if the mirror Quark was stuck here after all. But Quark turned to him, and he was wearing not black but blindingly garish colors and holding a familiar latinum-plated tooth sharpener in his hand.

"Quark?" he asked, wiping at his teary eyes.

But Quark didn't answer. He burst into tears as well and ran to Rom and wrapped both arms around him.

"Welcome home, brother," Rom told him, and Quark just nodded into his shoulder.


End file.
